Origin of Love

Mika opens his third studio album with its title track, which he penned with Nick Littlemore from Empire of the Sun and the Brighton-based musician Paul Steel. This was the first tune that Mika wrote for the set following difficulties in his personal life, including his sister having a life-threatening accident. He told Digital Spy: "I booked a ticket to Montreal, found a hotel on the way out of the airport, had two shots of whiskey and wrote the first good song I'd written in over two years - the title track of my new album the Origin Of Love. It was then that I decided to leave my sister, family and past relationships behind."

Mika teamed up with director Cristián Jiménez to create a short film for the song. It was shot in Santiago with Jiménez's close team. Mika explained: "After seeing his film Bonsai, this seemed like an exciting match. I wanted to take the kaleidoscopic dreaminess of the song and pair it up with Cristián's more realistic, surreal and moving imagery."

This is one of five tracks that Nick Littlemore contributed towards. Mika told The Sun how he ended about collaborating with the Australian songwriter/producer: "A mutual friend had introduced me to Nick Littlemore, who was working on the Elton John vs Pnau album Good Morning To The Night," he explained. "I like that he makes electronic music which is soft and gentle, not sledgehammer Europop," he said. "Within seven hours of us deciding to work together, I took a plane to Montreal, where he was working, and I didn't return for six or seven months. I went from the airport to the studio and, within the hour, we'd written the album's title track."

Speaking to the streaming site Spotify in a track-by-track interview, Mika explained the song's meaning: "The song's about love," he said. "The song's about joy. It's like all good joyful love songs, full of contradictions. It's got fear in it, it's got resentment, it's got anger, but it just makes you happy, it's like a shot of adrenaline. It represents for me, what it's like to be in love."